The Air Defense Mini-Con Team rushes to intercept a plummeting satellite set to crash ind downtown Chicago, Illinois. The succeed in doing so, steering the satellite towards Lake Michegan. but Runway notes that the damage to the satellite looks deliberate[[Subst:m-}} just as Starscream attacks! He shot the satellite down to lure them out, attracted by their recent string of good deeds rescuing humans. He manages to grab Runway, admitting rather sheepishly, he's not sure what to do, since he's not yet powerful enough to claim the Mini-Cons for his own... but if he hands them over to Megatron, the Decepticon leader will become too powerful for Starscream to ever challenge!

Optimus Prime, Hot Shot, and Red Alert arrive to make a fight of things, and outnumbered, Starscream retreats. Sonar tells Optimus Prime that they're grateful for the save, the Air Defense Team isn't ready to join either team, being more independent players. Optimus Prime is okay with that, but hopes that the Mini-Cons will think of them as friends and call them if they need help.

Neither side notices the tracking device Starscream managed to surreptitiously place on Runway...

The Air Defense Mini-Con Team sneaks into a NASA Research and Development outpost, intenting to (rather guiltily) steal the Deep Space technology they return to the stars. Instead they are ambushed by E.R.T.D personnel armed with Scramblers, and knocked out.

In Area 54, a pair of shadowy scientists, impressed by effectiveness of their own work with he Scramblers, decided to take a coddee break before fitting the captured Mini-Cons with control implants.

As they leave Runaway and Sonar awaken, unlike Jetstorm, who was the first hit, they had enough time to lock out their neural pathwways. Sonar reboots Jetstormmanually while Runway sansacks their computers, to discover how they knew just what to hit them with. He discovers that the humans captured and studied the Land Military Mini-Con Team during the 1950s.

When an alarm sounds, the Mini-Cons use their small size to escape through the ventilation shafts, and take the air, resolving to make finding the Land Military Team their top priority!